A change is as good as a rest?

I am officially really bad at choosing armies. And sticking to resolutions. It's just a month since I declared I would be concentrating on chaos and dwarfs as my main fantasy armies, but I have painted just one figure in that time, this rather nice classic Tzeentch sorceror. The colours were loosely based on the picture in the army book, though with more metallic tints rather than pastel colours. In that month I have played four games with the new list and am struggling to find enjoyment doing so, just frustration. I feel that warriors are a must inclusion in the army, yet they are hard to get the best use from, being so slow and easy to avoid. Supporting troops are obviously key to playing the army, the secret of which I have yet to unlock. So rather than continue to bash my head againt the proverbial brick wall, I am going to play a different army for a few weeks.

The army that has been most in my thoughts in the past week is not even one I own. I have a few figures from a previously abandoned project, just about enough to make up a Mordheim warband, not an army. I have always passed them by in favour of more exotica, but I think I might have to finally give into my instincts. So my next project may well be to collect the most average, ordinary army in the game - Empire.

My motley collection of bits is a few militia and some flagellents, which were going to be converted into a Witch Hunter warband. But I have recently come round to the idea of making several small bands of troops, such as a witch hunter band, a band of brigands and cut throats, maybe some trappers/hunters, that kind of thing. Each band could have some kind of unifying theme and make a discrete painting/modelling project, then be used as a detachment or small regiment in a complete army. Over time (a considerable period of time it has to be said), the bands would coalesce into a complete army, possibly with a Sigmarite theme. My opponents often plays beasts and chaos, ocassionally vampire counts, which also fits the theme. The more I mull it over, the more it makes sense.

New Year Resolutions

This is my painted dwarf army as it stands at the moment. There is a unit of 20 warriors, 10 miners, 16 thunderers and 15 longbeards. There are 3 war machines - a cannon, bolt thrower and organ gun. There's also a partially painted flame cannon. Characters are a couple of thanes, a runesmith and an army standard bearer. It's the army I am most likely to get painted this year, so I am posting it as an incentive to get it finished. If I get to the end of the year and it's not expanded to a fully painted 2000 points, I have failed in one of my resolutions.

Here's the full list of resolutions:-

1. Field a fully painted (dwarf) 2000 point army in a battle
2. Make a good start on painting my chaos warrior army (around 1000 points)
3. Paint the orks I bought last year (2 trukks, 6 deff koptas, tankbustas, burna boyz and lootas)

That's my main three goals for the year, adding any more will just muddy the water. I will be adding to my other armies too, but these are the Big Three for 2009. They are not ordered in any way, in fact I will be working on my chaos army in the next few weeks as I assemble enough troops to try them out in battle for the first time. That will give me a few ideas on how to progress, but already I am thinking about adding a converted war altar to the basic plastics I already have. More on that in a future post.

Gaming and Resolve

I had my first taste of the new Warriors of Chaos list last night, though I was facing against it with my High Elves. Years ago, my High Elf infantry horde would have really struggled against a chaos army, but now that elves strike first it should make the army concept more viable. In a 2.5k army I fielded 2 blocks of spearmen, 2 blocks of Swordmasters, 2 small units of Silver Helms (using them as "hard" fast cavalry rather than shock troops so no upgrades), 2 small units of shadow warriors, 2 bolt throwers, 2 eagles, 2 characters (a prince and a noble army standard) and 2 mages - both level 2 of course. And just to spoil all that symettry, one unit of archers.

The chaos army contained 3 blocks of warriors, one unit of chosen. These lined up roughly opposite my four infantry units. Down my left flank came a unit of knights, while my right flank was threatened by a unit of marauder horsemen and 3 dragon ogres. Taking centre stage was a giant, and there was a hero on a steed, a hero on foot and a sorceror dotted about various units. There was also some meat shields in a unit of marauders and a couple of units of hounds.

Sometimes when I design an army list I play out an ideal result in my head. Everything goes according to the theory and the army does exactly as is hoped. 99% of the time the theory goes straight of the window within a turn or two, due to a canny opponent, dice rolls, awkward terrain, whatever. But this game was one of those 1% of games where everything goes exactly as planned. The eagles made it to the rear of the chaos army and slowed it down, allowing the elves to shoot/magic with impunity. The giant was eliminated as a threat early on, mostly due to bolt thrower fire and the Curse of Arrow Attraction spell. The fast and powerful units were slowed/harried by Silver Helms and Shadow warriors, while the archers and bolt throwers removed most of the light/fast units. By turn 4 the chaos army was considerably weakened - the giant was dead, the knights and dragon ogres were ineffective on the flanks, while the central infantry units were doggedly trudging forward under a hail of missiles.

By turn 6 the combat started, with the chaos units all considerably weakened while the elf units were still at full strength. The Elven Prince and Noble made short work of the chaos champions, the swordmasters despatched two units of chaos warriors, only the spearmen stumbled against the chosen, but still held their ground. Complete humiliation for the chaos general, a perfectly executed plan by the High Elves. A nice end to a good year of gaming. And a valuable lesson to me as a chaos general in waiting - warriors need lots of support troops to help them butcher the enemy. I am thinking that each unit of warriors needs an accompanying unit of hounds to screen them and/or drive away march blockers, maybe a unit of marauders to lend some numbers, and a chariot to help keep cavalry/fast units at bay and add extra punch in combat.

Wolf Riders Go Looting

These wolf riders have been sitting unpainted on my shelf for about a year, so when we started to try out the loot and pillage scenarios from a recent White Dwarf, it was an ideal excuse to get them painted. They were painted quickly, with very little attention to detail, just a bit of care on the faces.

I have a theory that freshly painted models seem to fare pretty badly. It seems to me that as soon as you unfurl your latest painted unit on the battlefield, you can guarantee a swift demise for them. So how did this lot get on? There are actually two units here, both with musicians. One unit failed an animosity test with a 6, resulting in them charging a unit of Empire Greatswords. They were soundly beaten and fled the field of battle. The other unit did better, harrying a unit of Empire Knights, until eventually they were shot to pieces by handgunners and pistoliers. That's probably par for the course for wolf riders, so my theory is unproven as yet. The star turn in the game was a unit of spider riders, who scaled the walls of a watchtower, despite the damage from a well-aimed fireball, then clambered over the top to kill two Helblaster crewmen - the surviving member was so traumatised he ran for his life, flinging himself from the parapets!

The Horde assembles

It's been a fairly lean month for hobby time, but I have managed to start assembling a new Warriors of Chaos army. As I normally do with new armies, I have started on core units and hope to have around 1000 points to play with before I start any serious painting. It's just a grey horde at the moment, but I am thinking it will probably be a Khorne army, so plenty of red and brass in the warriors, with the marauders more generalised (unmarked).

The new marauder horse boxset is a lovely piece of kit. The horses are possibly the best I have seen. There are seventeen marauder heads, many of which I have used on the older plastic marauder infantry to improve their appearance. The only (minor) fly in the ointment is that the rider's torso and legs are one complete piece, so there's no scope for twisting in the saddle dynamics. Still, I like the kit and will probably get another one at some time, if only for the extra heads. You can see some of them in the background of the pic, on the plastic marauders with flails.

The chaos warriors are armed with great weapons. These are reasonably easy to convert from the weapons in the box, joining two hand weapons into one. I chose great weapons as I want the army to reflect the Khorne aspect of maximum carnage. This unit will be deployed six wide and with the mark of Khorne will have 19 S6 attacks if they get the charge. I think I need to practise my blood painting skills.

The Lure of Chaos

I knew this would happen! As soon as the new chaos figures were released I caved in and ordered some of the new plastics along with the new book. They are supposedly a Christmas present to me, but I have had a couple of sneaky peeks at the book and the contents of the Marauder horsemen box. I know, what a naughty boy I am!

I already have 3 or 4 boxes of chaos warriors, one virtually painted up, plus 20 - 30 plastic marauders and around 15 of the older metal marauders, so I have plenty of raw material to build some core regiments. I was also thinking of adding daemons as special choices (my opponent is happy for me to do this strictly illegal act), but having leafed through the book I think ogres and trolls would be better choices, so I will await their release in plastic form.

I will probably concentrate on non-specific models to start with, or I might just dedicate my core to Khorne, I can't quite decide. I suppose I should be able to do both by using a replaceable command group. I definitely want the Lord on Juggernaut model and have been dropping some pretty heavy hints for my Christmas list.

I also have a few regiments I painted about 3 or 4 years ago, in a Tzeentch scheme. I could finish that off and have a 1000+ pointer ready to go with little effort. Perhaps I could get together a unit of marauders from the plastics, with a few plastic spawn mutations. Even though the new book allows mix and match gifts and marks, I will probably stick with the god-specific armies, for most games at least. My ultimate aim would be to have 1500 points dedicated to each of the pantheon, but that's a 5 year project. Although, I usually get distracted after a couple of months, so maybe it's a 10 year plan.